Tending the Garden for a Good Harvest: Love
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Here is a link to the video I used to introduce the message.
If we believe Jesus, love is the most important commandment of all. If we believe the Apostle Paul, love is the first aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit. If we believe our culture, love is confusing.
Anyone here confused about love?
Today we are looking at the first aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit –what it looks like when we’re led by the Holy Spirit. Remember that we’re not talking about nine different fruits that we can pick and choose from; we’re talking about nine aspects of the same Fruit. I told you I am a husband, father, pastor, son, athlete, musician, reader, friend, and hiker, I am not just one of these things; they are all aspects of me. Likewise with the Fruit of the Spirit.
That said, it’s important that we first look at love, because that’s the aspect that in one word best describes. In 1 John 4, John twice tells us (verbatim) that God is love. In fact, he tells us that when we love, we look like God. Listen to what he says.
1 John 4:7-8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Did you get that: God is love. And not only is God love, but love comes from God. This is the first and most important point this morning; that God is the provider of love. Love doesn’t come from anywhere else. This has huge ramifications in our lives. When it comes to love, it doesn’t just flow from trying to love more. It doesn’t come because someone has done something for you. You don’t inherit it. Love comes from God.
Sometimes we get caught up in the world’s thought process when it comes to love. First of all, we frequently only focus on one aspect of love, where in Greek there are multiple words to describe it.
The first word is storge, which means fondness through familiarity, especially between family members or people who have otherwise found themselves together by chance.
The second word is philia, which is a bond existing between people who share a common interest or activity.
The third word is eros, which is what we often think of when we say “love” – this is the sense of ‘being in love’ with someone.
Finally we get to the word that Paul uses to describe the Fruit of the Spirit: agape. This is unconditional love which is independent of any lovable qualities of the object of love. This is God’s love; remember what John said about God? God is love. God is so full of love that God is incapable of not loving. God’s love overflows so much that He can’t help but love us.
This is the love that the Holy Spirit fills us with. John Wesley called it perfect love. In fact, if you did not exhibit this kind of love of God and neighbor, John Wesley would consider you to be an “almost Christian.” This was for him the litmus test of one’s relationship with Jesus Christ.
What does this kind of love look like? Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. We often read this scripture at weddings to remind us of the love a husband and wife have for each other, but Paul’s audience is the church. Specifically, he is addressing a divided church, telling the church that unity is paramount, that because of our differences in the church, we should work together as the Body of Christ, using all of our diverse Spiritual gifts. Then he says, “And now I will show you the most excellent way. He goes on to say that no matter what we do, if we aren’t full of love, we’re just noisemakers. Even if we preach and teach and have awesome faith, if we commit all kinds of self-giving acts of charity; if we don’t have love, we’re nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.
Does this describe you? Are you patient and kind? Do you envy? Do you boast? Do you hold a grudge? Are you selfish? If the answer is “no” then what kind of fruit is growing in your garden?
In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis compares this kind of love with a garden. Our acts of compassion and love are the gardening utensils, and the lover is the gardener, but God is the elements of nature. Our gardens won’t grow without rain, and neither will our natural love grow without God’s love and guidance. Without these, our love will wilt and die.
What does this mean in practical terms?
There are two major weeds that overgrow our love gardens. Selfishness and apathy. They grow intertwined and if left unchecked, will strangle love. Our selfishness dictates who we want to love; only those who love us or who have something to give us. This, my friends, is not love!
Contrast that kind of selfish love with God’s love as described in 1 John 4:9-10. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus was the only One who never sinned, yet He was the one who gave Himself for our sins. Romans 5:7 poses the scenario: Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. That’s the normal state of affairs. But Paul goes on to say this: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Real love is never selfish and is always sacrificial.
The other enemy of love is apathy. I remember a fraternity on my campus who had t-shirts made up that read, “Loved or Hated, but never ignored.” They wanted you to know that everyone took notice of the “sig eps.” In the book of Revelation, Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16). You see, the true opposite of love is “I don’t care.”
Do you really love your neighbor? Do you care about them? Do you care about their eternal salvation? To plant a garden of love, you have to pull out apathy. In German, we have two words that mean “to know.” Wissen means to know something intellectually, but kennen means to know personally. Do you know of your neighbors, or do you know them? To know someone, to really know them, you have to stop long enough to listen to their story. Stop long enough to notice.
My grandmother grew up a product of a different era, an overtly racist era. She didn’t care for Black people. But as she grew older and ended up as a shut-in, there was an African American woman who kept coming over to check up on her and to make sure she was OK. At first, Grandma would refer to her in racial terms like “that colored woman” but one day I noticed that Grandma was calling her by name. She ended up calling her “my friend.”
1 John 4:19-21 We love because he first loved us.0If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Are you a Christian? Then you necessarily love with Christ’s love! Now that we all love our Christian brothers and sisters, are you ready to take this to a whole new level?
Jesus said that we’re not just supposed to love our friends and fellow believers. Here’s what Jesus has to say in Matthew 5:44-46: You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
You might be wondering how that is even possible. Not only does God call us to love the people we like, to love the lovable people in our lives, but Jesus specifically tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
You see, we usually try to control love: we want to love who we want to love, and nobody can tell us any different. But here’s the thing: Jesus tells us something completely different, utterly counter-cultural, revolutionary, even.
Love our enemies.
The picture that comes to my mind here is Pope John Paul II forgiving his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca in prison.
I know this isn’t just some easy command. I just re-read my prayer journal from a few years back, where I had written this: If I’m going to live a truly Christ-filled life, I’ll have to forgive. That means forgiving (and then I included some names of two people who had betrayed me). Lord help me to forgive. Did I want to forgive them? Did I want to love them? No. But I knew that God wanted me to love them.
So how do we love unlovable people?
Let’s be honest; we just don’t do this kind of love. It certainly doesn’t come naturally. It’s not one of those things that just flows from us. But as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 19:26b With God all things are possible. This kind of loving is the Holy Spirit’s work. This is why it’s known as an aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit! It’s because this is the Holy Spirit’s job!
And 1 John 5:3-5 tells us that love for God is to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Did you notice that? Everyone born of God overcomes the world! You don’t have to stay stuck in the worldly trap of hate. God sets you free! God breaks the chains! But it’s only through the Holy Spirit that this happens.
Know that I’m not talking about fake love – you probably know someone who pretends you’re their best friend to your face and talks trash behind your back. Most of us can see through that, especially if we see that person trash-talking about someone else.
Romans 12:9 tells us that love must be sincere. Then Paul goes on to tell us (in Romans 12:10-19) what steps to take toward that sincere love.
1. Hate what is evil; cling to the truth.
2. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
3. Honor one another above yourselves.
4. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
5. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
6. Share with God’s people who are in need.
7. Practice hospitality.
8. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
9. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
10. Live in harmony with one another.
11. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.
12. Do not be conceited.
13. Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
14. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
15. Do not take revenge.
If you want some practical steps to loving more, here are three.
Seek them out. You can go through your whole life never even noticing people who need your love. You can run and hide when difficult people come your way. You can put things in your way so you never have to interact with people you don’t like. Or you can seek them out.
Pray for them/for yourself. Knowing that we aren’t the originators of this love is helpful – and if this love comes from God, then why don’t we allow God to be the one who loves? Why don’t we accept that overflow of God’s love that He has to give? To do this, we have to cover the whole thing with prayer. Prayer that we will be able to love (that God will do the impossible through us and will transform us into loving people). Prayer for that person, for their real needs (not just “make her nice”). Spend some solitary time praying and fasting for the ability and the will to love.
Serve them. Praying for someone is one thing. Telling someone you love them is another thing. But if you want to really love someone, God calls you to serve them. In Luke 6:35, Jesus tells us Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind of the ungrateful and wicked.
Live a life of service, not just to people you already like, but to people you don’t like. In Romans 12:20, Paul quotes King Solomon (Proverbs 25:21): If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
He goes on in v. 21 to say Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The path to overcoming? Being filled with the love of God. This is tending God’s garden for a good harvest of love.
May God Himself, the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls us is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
As He overflows with love for us, may we overflow with love for others.
Comments
Some people talk about the shadows of the Bible such as the tabernacle was an imperfect shadow of the perfect holy temple that is within us. I wonder if the two commandments to love the Lord and to love one another are presented on earth as a shadow of the perfect love that we have after we leave this earth. People suggest that we will only be worshiping the Lord in heaven. Yet we will be heavenly beings and somehow next to us will be heavenly beings that live in total love and harmony. That being (if it is an angel or whatever does not matter) when on earth may have been a Christian brother or sister that we did not agree with, in either theology or in practice. Therefore, if you follow me, our love practice here on earth with imperfect people is a training or shadow for that perfect love in heaven. When someone stubs our toe here on earth, do we complain? If someone offends us, do we bicker? As a result of reading your sermon, I see that the Lord is preparing us to overlook and just love (agape) because that is what it will be like in heaven.
Thank you for posting this sermon.
Tom Clarke